Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 517 Proceedings of the 6th Annual International Conference on Social Science and Contemporary Humanity Development (SSCHD 2020) The Profiting Modes of China’s Online Video Platforms ——A Case Study of iQIYI Shifen Wang* and Jiamiao Ye School of Economics, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China *Corresponding author. Email:
[email protected] ABSTRACT From 2004 to 2020, the online video platforms in China have developed for 17 years. After the early stage of wild growth, the industry entered the stage of normal development. The IPOs of iQIYI and Bilibili in Nasdaq demonstrated the potential of China’s online video platforms. However, the platforms, including the leaders like iQIYI and Tencent Video, are still losing money in the background of increased investments. The successive losses are harmful to the future development so that it is especially important to study how to improve the profiting modes of the online video platforms. After introducing the development of China’s online video platforms, the essay conducts a case study of iQIYI, which includes the development stages, the key elements of its profiting mode. Finally, in the summary of the case study, the advantages of iQIYI are introduced: strategic investment vision, unique IP liquidity ability and cross-platform cooperation awareness. Keywords: China’s online video platform, Mode of profitability, iQIYI. 1. INTRODUCTION high cost and unclear profiting mode, were heavily struck by the want of financing. Some 400 mid-to-small From 1994 when China got access to the internet, it platforms bankrupted. This was the second wave of re- experienced three waves: first, 4 big searching engines; shuffle.